Man Cheng Jin Dai Huang Jing Jia (The capital city is filled with people wearing golden armors in semi-literal translation) – doesn’t Curse of the Golden Flower sound sort of goofy? I guess if he wanted to title the film as a summation of the storyline a la Four Weddings and a Funeral, he could’ve called it “Poison Your Wife, Everybody Dies in a Brutal Fashion.”
The latest Zhang Yimou film is yet another miss. It’s still the fluffy eye candy with very little filling. Jay Chou is not an actor, he’s a singer and he ought to stick to singing, at least until he gets some acting lessons. In the meantime, don’t put him in films next to Gong Li and Chow Yunfat. I cringed when he talked. He’s hot though, but that follows the same vein of style over substance.
Quick summary of the film: A Tang Dynasty emperor is slowly poisoning his wife. He can’t kill her quickly because he achieved his career status with the help of his wife, namely by marrying her. I guess her family would be pretty ticked off if he killed her. Well, she gets fed up with the slow agonizing death and decides to get her son to force her husband to abdicate. It turns into a big puddle of blood. The end.
Clearly, I don’t like the gratuitous gore which is why I’m in such a funky mood writing this review. I’m all jittery and spastic from watching so much violence. I shouldn’t have watched it the second time around huh? Which brings me back to the review, obviously if I really hated it, I wouldn’t have watched it twice. Something about this movie (the pretty scenes?, Jay Chou’s pretty face?, Chow Yunfat’s pretty face?) drew me to it.
I was looking at Gong Li’s pretty face.